State fines nursing home Villa Campana

Facility pays $10,000 for violating rules

State health officials have once again found Tucson's Villa
Campana Health Care Center in violation of rules and regulations
governing Arizona nursing homes.

The 120-bed for-profit nursing home, owned by Kentucky-based
Kindred Healthcare, paid the state a $10,000 fine this summer for
failing to follow its own policies and procedures on caring for and
preventing pressure ulcers. In one case, a patient developed a
pressure sore that grew so severe it required surgery to remove the
coccyx bone, a state report says.

Officials with Kindred Healthcare and Villa Campana say they are
now in compliance with all state and federal regulations, and
stressed that resident care and safety is their prime concern.

"We take seriously any issues brought to our attention by the
state and we have the same goal - resident safety," the company
said.

Villa Campana paid the fine June 29 and state health officials
confirmed in a letter to Villa Campana dated July 30 that the
deficiencies it had found had been sufficiently corrected.

Villa Campana's state fine is the largest paid by any Southern
Arizona nursing home so far this year. It's also the second time in
less than a year that Villa Campana, 6651 E. Carondelet Drive, has
been fined for its wound care.

Citing violations of federal requirements governing nursing
homes, Medicare stopped paying for new admissions at Villa Campana
for 28 days in September last year. The federal Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services also fined Villa Campana $68,000
for non-compliance, and nursing home officials eventually paid
$44,200 as part of an agreement with the government.

And on Dec. 1, Villa Campana paid the state of Arizona a fine of
$11,525 for violating 33 state rules and regulations governing
long-term care, including failing to monitor corrective actions for
wound care, and failing to provide appropriate treatment for
pressure ulcers.

That amount was the largest state fine paid by any nursing home
facility in Southern Arizona in 2009.

Villa Campana paid the most recent fine - the $10,000 -
following a complaint and follow-up investigation, state records
show.

A state report says one patient entered Villa Campana Sept. 18
without any pressure ulcers. When the patient developed one in
October, Villa Campana failed to properly treat it and the ulcer
spread to the bone as osteomylelitis (a bone infection), the report
says. The patient underwent surgery in December to remove infected
soft tissue, the coccyx bone and a portion of the sacrum, the
report says.

The patient was hospitalized and then returned to Villa Campana
in January. The state report says Villa Campana then failed to have
staff members trained to promote healing of the wound and as a
result, the resident faced more surgery to repair the damage.

Villa Campana has a one-star rating with the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services - its lowest rating, considered
"much below average."

The federal quality-rating system relies on self-reporting from
the nursing homes and takes into account such factors as staff and
resident interactions and the nursing home environment. Five of the
23 Medicare-certified nursing homes in Pima County have one-star
ratings.

And the Arizona Department of Health Services rates Villa
Campana as "D" in quality, the state's lowest designation in a
ratings system based on measures of care such as infection control,
food services, resident rights and nursing services.

There are also three pending lawsuits against Villa Campana
alleging inadequate care: two in Pima County Superior Court and one
in federal court.